1st Day
This is the beginning of what may or may not be a successful project. The custom bracket that I had previsously used to mount my SAFC broke after being bent back and forth a few too many times by driving, adjustments, passengers bumping it, etc. I'm pretty sure I've seen this done before, but I don;t know how they did it or if I was just nuts... but I have some specific goals so I'm going to do it from scratch.

I have an extra center vent, and a broken one in my car right now, so I'd like to use the broken one to make a custom mount for my now hanging SAFC. I want it to look clean, somewhat OEM in execution, and still maintain a functional center vent.

Here's the basic idea, but not exactly. Of course I want a clean bezel, the vent back in, thee wire hidden, and a gorgeous girlfriend int he passenger seat.

As you can see int his pic of Erics Stealth from our prosport gauges install gallery. The center vents have a button built into them. This is the emergency blinkers button. Sort of inportant real estate for such a little used button, but none the less it's there. It may be the salvation of this project to try and make the one of the center vents still work.

Ideally I'd like to have the vent closest to me as the driver still work. Maybe I'll call this a FTP mod, as in, "F the passenger". Here's the issue. The SAFC is almost exactly the width of the vent PLUS the emergency lights button. This means the side that includes the button... closest to the driver, is where the SAFC has to go. Damn.

But wait.... why not just flip it over so the button is on the other side so the vent is still closest to me? The problem with that is now the sheath going back to the air vent is on the wrong side. This may work out though, as maybe the vent on the other side will bend to fit still with some massaging.

The plan now is to cut out the space that the SAFC needs with a dremel carefully (it will be quite thin on top and bottom) and remove the button casing, perhaps to remount under the dash so i can still hit the flashers.

Here it is, with the buttom dremeled off at basically where the crack was on the other side. This turns out to be a bad idea later, and I have to reverse it.

So I've come along a bit, learned a few things. The SAFC posed a problem of it's own, in that it's wire comes out the right side, so it hits the plastic of the vent.... so i had to dremel out some room for it in the vent... which turned out to not cause any problems with the level that opens and clsoes the vents, so that was nice to learn.

Here's a vote for "thinking something all the way through before cutting... I cut off the entire flasher button thinking I'd use it somewhere else. Well, turns out to keep the install clean, I'll need the whole bezel. So i did what I can only call plastic welding (using some of the trimmed plastic to melt across the back and reattach the plastic in form. On the front you can see the two spots it was severed it in small cracks, so i thinka t some point I'll either do another one, or fill/sand this one. As it's just a proof of concept at this point and something to play with, I'm not too upset. Note: it's always best to use a broken or secondary peice to do this sort of stuff, and then you aren;t nearly as pissed as I could have been when i realized i had made a mistake.

I also realized I can remove the front of the vent system with the sheath ducting to the AC unit. That made it alot easier to get at things and cut them away. It is just about 8 lift tabs. be careful with those, they can break easily.

I've also come to the conclusion that something needs to be done with the airflow behind the SAFC. While I think it would be "ok" to have it in that airflow, i think some damage might come to the electronics if subjected to the heat that can be geenrated out of the heater system... it gets pretty damn hot. I think i may trim the plastic inside that shuts and opens the vent to allow for a "wall" to be made... and have that air diverted to the single vent. Maybe a little cardboard in there too as insulation.

2nd Day

So here's where I was on the project last night last time I was in the car.

and here's what it looks like up against the vent sort of.

See how I definately have to get the rest of the bezel in there or it's going to look horrible? Yep.... so I plastic welded that back together and will use it... but also notice that the safc, witht he lever for the center vent still exisiting, needs room on the left side or it wont fit.

Well, the obvious solution is to have the SAFC portion go behind the dash, as the left side, as you can see, is justs ilver... no screen real estate or buttons... so it can be obscured.

There's only one issue... the dash has some thickness there that wont let it sit flush.... so I will have to take a razer or knife or something to it to cut that side away... behind the dash. it should effect anything up front, and what I'll be cutting away should have no bearing on a OEM vent setup if I ever put it back in to stock.

Today if I can get to it I'll try to cut away that portion and see how it goes. I'll also take pics of the vent bezel and unit with 1 inch cut out to fit the SAFC so you can see how it sits on the bottom of the vent sheath.